six hokies sign pro deals, three transfer as roster starts to thin out

Sam Alves

July 27, 2021

BLACKSBURG 一 Virginia Tech limped to a 2-15 finish to its season, but the losses didn’t end in the ACC Championships.

Five Hokies (pitchers Shane Connolly, Chris Gerard Anthony Simonelly and Peyton Alford and first baseman TJ Rumfield) signed deals with major league clubs, while at least three more (third baseman Kevin Madden, shortstop Fritz Genther and catcher Dayne Leonard) transferred, leaving the maroon and orange without its entire weekend rotation, everyday corner infielders, and most trusted reliever from the 2020 season.

Drafted No. 289 overall, lefty swingman Shane Connolly signed for $72,500 with the Kansas City Royals, less than half of the $147,700 slot value.

First baseman TJ Rumfield was selected No. 355 overall by the Phillies for $125,000, the most allowable without penalty for a player drafted in rounds 11-20. The power-hitting lefty led all Hokies in RBIs and walks in his lone year in Blacksburg, before which he redshirted and started four-of-nine games for Texas Tech in a pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.

Left-handed starter Chris Gerard was the next Hokie to be drafted. The St. Louis Cardinals drafted Tech’s ace at No. 361 overall, six picks after Rumfield, and he signed for $250,000, double the slotted maximum bonus for a double-digit round pick.

Joining Connolly in the Royals organization is right-handed starter Anthony Simonelli, the last Hokie selected, who was drafted No. 469 overall and signed for $75,000.

Starting on short rest in his last start for the Hokies, Simonelli struck out three Notre Dame batters swinging before head coach John Szefc pulled him due to fatigue after starting on short rest in 92-degree heat.

“I didn’t want [Simonelli] getting hurt 一 certainly not him,” Szefc said of his fiery right-hander. “I think he has a good pro career ahead of him, so that’s what motivated that [decision.]”

Lefty Peyton Alford went undrafted but signed with the Seattle Mariners.

“As good of a guy there is,” Szefc tweeted of his team’s leader in starts, innings pitched and strikeouts in 2021.

Left without its four best pitchers, Tech also lost a highly-rated recruit, left-hander Mason Albright, who could have lessened the blow (he was ranked as the No. 42 overall prospect in the country by Perfect Game). Albright signed for $1.25 million after the Los Angeles Angels drafted him No. 351 overall, where he fell due to concerns about his prior commitment to Virginia Tech.

In addition to the draft talent drain, third baseman Kevin Madden transferred to South Carolina. Madden appeared in and started all but one of 118 games at third base over three years in Blacksburg.

Serving as the team’s veteran infield presence, Madden tied for the team lead in RBIs (37) and knocked in two walk-off hits in 2021.

Finally, shortstop Fritz Genther Tweeted that he would transfer to UMass-Lowell on July 2. And backup catcher Dayne Leonard announced his decision to transfer to West Virginia in mid-July on Twitter.

Genther started 24 games for the Hokies in 2021, hitting .186 with 11 RBIs and two homers. His third inning home run against Miami on Feb. 28 was the spark the Hokies needed in a 9-6 comeback win over the then-No. 3 Hurricanes.

True freshman Tanner Schobel took over the starting job, shifting from second base to shortstop once Nick Biddison returned from injury in late March, and in turn the move sent Genther to the bench. It wasn't the last Hokies fans would see of Genther, though. He drove in two crucial runs in Tech’s 6-3 win over Virginia on May 1.

Leonard, meanwhile, started the year catching Anthony Simonelli before taking on a bigger role when Cade Hunter broke his right hamate bone in March. He was then leapfrogged by Gehrig Ebel, who was a Top 500 recruit in 2020, in May. With the NCAA landscape uncertain as ever, Leonard may actually have a chance to face his old team in the coming years.

Coming into Blacksburg to replace the arms lost during the draft are two Top-200 pitchers. Right-handed pitcher Tyler Dean, rated at the No. 98 player in the nation, and left-handed pitcher Timothy Williams, who is the No. 182 prospect.

Dean, a Vinton, Va. native and the No. 1 pitching recruit in the Commonwealth, possesses a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and can touch 98 miles-per-hour on occasion. He’s developed a swing-and-miss slider, too, according to Perfect Game.

Williams, meanwhile, is the second-best left-handed pitcher in Virginia and the sixth-highest rated recruit in the Commonwealth. His fastball tops out around 93 miles-per-hour.

Tragedy struck earlier this year for Williams, however. He battled Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which your body's immune system attacks your nerves. According to local reports, Williams was hospitalized with the illness in February, and he couldn’t move and was on a breathing tube. But he prevailed and made his return to the mound for his high school in late May and still plans to play Virginia Tech in the spring.

Szefc, who recently signed a deal of his own 一 an extension that runs through 2027 一 has filled some of the holes on his thin roster with the recruits he has signed over the years as he continues to build it in Blacksburg.